Klingon Women Then and Now
When Klingon bomb-shells Lursa and B’Etor found their way into Star Trek: The Next Generation, they presented, what was for Star Trek, an unusual blend of both tough and sexy. Their Klingon costumes showed a liberal amount of cleavage among hard metal edging and dark colors, delivering both sex-appeal and a physical prowess to be feared.
Star Trek: TNG and the movie Star Trek: Generations both offered this rugged, yet sexy portrayal of Klingon women to appeal to the male-gaze of Star Trek fans.
By the time Star Trek: Voyager came around, B’Elanna Torres was softened-up and given more traditionally feminine traits. No doubt to appeal to (male) fans less into the idea that a woman could best them in hand to hand combat. Of course that character was only half Klingon, the other half being Human. While her “toughness” was explored early in the series, it mostly fizzled out after a few seasons.
Tough As They Should Be
Star Trek Discovery looks to challenge the way we see Klingon women by giving them the appearance they always should have had – tough as nails! Just like their male counterparts. Toughness would not be the sole domain of men in a species that is dedicated to battle and to honor.
Now a new image has been released that depicts T’Kuvma (right in the image at top) played by Chris Obi, and L’Rell (right of this text) portrayed by Mary Chieffo.
(Be sure to check out our extensive character bio page for more on both L’Rell and T’Kuvma)
L’Rell gives us our first clear glimpse of what the Klingon women of Star Trek Discovery will look like.
Talk Surrounding New Klingon Appearance
Much discussion has taken place around the way the Klingons appear in the new show. We wrote an opinion piece on the subject when we broke the news on the new Klingon appearance. Up to now, it was not clear if Klingon women would also take on such a different, non-conventional appearance as well. Not only will they, there’s very little difference in appearance between male and female Klingons.
Like their male comrades, Klingon women also appear to have no hair. That is if L’Rell is any indication.
Star Trek Discovery premieres September 24 2017 8:30pm Eastern on CBS All Access (USA) and Space/CraveTV (Canada), and on September 25 2017 on Netflix (rest of world).
